Today’s #GivingTuesday’s episode featured Tommy’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar and our extreme efforts to recycle and reuse oyster shells in the Galveston Bay rejuvenation efforts! If you are unfamiliar with the process, check out the video below. It’s a short video featuring Bob Stokes, the Galveston Bay Foundation’s President, along with Tommy’s Chef. As they walk through Tommy’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar (giving a GREAT feel for the restaurant), including the kitchen and behind the bar, oyster shell recycling is discussed.

On any given, average day, we will open 100 to 170 bags of oysters. Each bag contains 100 oysters. Opening tens of thousands of oysters a day creates quite a few “bins” of oyster shells. The shells are transported to a field, where they are spread out to allow the sun’s natural rays to dry the shells. Post-drying, they are then bagged in these woven bags and transported to various oyster reefs throughout the Galveston Bay Area which is vital to a healthy bay as oysters filter 50+ gallons of water a day. PER OYSTER.

Quick Math for WATER FILTRATION POTENTIAL:

170 Bags of Oysters = 17,000 individual oysters

17,000 oysters x 2 shells each = 54,000 individual “half” shells

54,ooo Oysters x 50 gallons a day = 2,700,000 gallons of filtered water in Galveston Bay

In 2011, the Galveston Bay Foundation partnered with Tommy’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar in Clear Lake to begin recycling oyster shell from the restaurant to be used in restoration projects in Galveston Bay.